Malnutrition and Anaemia among Indian Women: Trends and Association with Socio-demographic Factors

Abstract

Like other developing countries, triple burden of malnutrition (undernutrition, overnutrition and anaemia) are the major health problem among adult women in India.  The aim of the study was to investigate the malnutrition and anaemia among adult women in India. We also tried to determine the trends in burden of malnutrition and anaemia of Indian women over time. This was a cross sectional household study.  In this study, we used secondary data that was extracted from recent National Family Health Survey (NFHS-5), 2019-21. The paper used unit level data of 609551 non-pregnant women aged 15 to 49 years. The outcome variables of this study were (i) nutritional status and (ii) anaemia. The prevalence of undernutrition, overnutrition and anaemia of Indian adult women were 18.5%, 21.8% and 56.1% respectively. The impact of type of place, education, religion, number of household members, ethnic groups, wealth index, geographical location (zone), diabetes and thyroid on malnutrition and anaemia were significant. The impact of hypertension on malnutrition was significant but not on anaemia. During the last four years, underweight had decreased by nearly 4% and overweight and obesity had increased by 2.4% and 1.0% respectively, and the prevalence of anaemia had increased nearly by 5.0 %.  The results clearly pointed out that there exists a dual burden of malnutrition along with high rate of anaemia in India and these are posing a serious challenge for nutritional policy makers. In order to prevent the malnutrition, policy makers should be aware of the fact that the nutritional status of a woman not only depends on household income but also on the environmental status, gender discrimination, level of education, activity status, exposure to social stimulation, decision making power at the household level. 

IJSS, Vol. 26(1), March, 2026, pp 1-12